A Hopeless Romantic

You don't fall in love with someone because it's convenient.

People don't fall in love with each other because it's convenient. They fall in love because they fall in love, and that's it.

Darling, you fall in love all the time. You can't run away just because it doesn't fit into your exact romantic dreamworld, you know.

It was dreadful, when she thought about it with the tiniest bit of hindsight, to admit this was the case. That a small part of herself was such a masochist, so enjoyed putting herself through all of this, that she liked hearing sad songs on the radio and staring gloomily out the window late at night. The tears in her eyes as she walked home of an evening, thinking about how much she loved him and how great they were together. It was so adolescent.

Don't run away from it, just because it's difficult.

Not to be with the one you love, Laura, the one person you should be spending your life with--it’s like a kind of living death. To wake up every morning and know you are still here. To have that brief, sweet moment of blankness, before your mind reminds you who you are, and why you are unhappy. It was like hell. A living hell of the heart’s own making.

She had realised that they couldn't be together. She didn't want to make a romantic drama out of it, she didn't want to sigh and mope or scream hysterically to impress others with how awful it all was, even though she felt as if something fundamental, deep within her, had been taken away from her. She was simply trying to cope, to get on with her own normal life. Which, she knew, was something he could not be a part of.

When was the last time she'd actually had a relationship based on reality, instead of some completely invented fantasy she'd written in her head? In her stupid, silly, romantic head.

She thought she was a sensible girl. But some kind of love had taken hold of her and refused to let her go, and it wasn't a happy, easy, joyful thing, it had her in a vice-like grip.

I think you might have missed the right person, your true love, because you have spent your life looking too hard for him. You have a great capacity to love, Laura. Don’t run away from it. Use it. Stop wasting it. Throw yourself into it, and don’t be scared. I promise you, with all my heart, that you will never live a day when you regret it.

Why do you want the world to be black and white? It's not.

I'm not going to tell you how I think you should live your life, or what I think you should do," said Mary. "Now's not the time. But I will say this: Don't try to paper over things that matter, Laura. The cracks will appear. Maybe not immediately, but they will.

No, she learned that true love was epic stuff, as told by Mary.

Laura's problem was that she kept casting men in roles they weren't suited for. Like lovely Josh, casting him in the role of decent, kind house-husband, the perfect partner, the modern male, when - what was it that she'd actually loved about him, really? Laura tried to think, and couldn't come up with an answer. He was a great man - kind, funny, clever, hard working - but there was no way he was the man for her, she realised now. Why hadn't she seen it?

It's different up here, you know." "I know," said Laura miserably. "I was -- enjoying myself, that's all." Nick watched her for a moment. "Don't look so tragic about it, Laura. It's not a crime to enjoy yourself, you know." "Yes, it is," muttered Laura, feeling as if she were in some biblical parable, the one where the Lord wreaks vengeance on the stupid girl who is a foolish wanton by removing the last shred of common sense in her brain.

Are you sure it wouldn't work?" said Jo urgently, in a quiet voice. "Are you sure you don't want to see him again? Laura wanted to laugh. Those were two totally separate things, weren't they?

It was completely still, not a sound within or outside. As if it was just the two of them, nothing more in the world, in this room alone.

What she didn't say was: "Can I punch both your sisters?" "How do you cope with this, all the time?" "Why can't it be the two of us, like it was before?" And, "Do you realize I've fallen for you?